Jack Creek Farms "Threshing Bee" Sept. 5, 2009

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Created on Thursday, 10 September 2009 07:41

Last Updated on Sunday, 09 March 2014 11:56

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One of the areas we have really failed to "Stay local" over the years has been wheat and flour. We never have been able to find sources of grain that are not animal feed and are from closer than northern California. So I was eager this weekend to check out the "Threshing Bee" at Jack Creek Farms. It was very interesting and a whole lot of fun. There was no wheat to buy but we got to see the whole process just as it was at the beginning of the era of motor-driven mechanical farming. I also heard that we should soon be able to get a small amount of locally grown and processed wheat and flour out of San Miguel so we scored on that quest as well.

Read more for details and a bunch of pictures

Right near the parking area (basically the field where they would need to be plowing later in the day) they were doing some discing with an old steam tractor.

They were just getting started with a threshing run when we arrived. This task used the mobile combination threshing machine.

There was also a stationary threshing machine hooked up to another steam tractor. It took several of them a bit of time to get it rolling, but once it was, it was an impressive beast. Definitely made for a horror movie.

I even took some video of it in action, click on the picture above to see it. Check out the teeth on this thing.

There was also a collection of other old motorized machines from a San Luis Obispo County group. My favorite was this old gasoline powered bicycle. It may be an early moped I guess.